Superbowl XLIII is finally here!

After 20 grueling weeks, it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals who’ll be taking to the field at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida. Pittsburgh arrive in Tampa as massive favourites and with good reason, they have the best defense in the league and are ranked first on points allowed, total yards allowed and passing yards allowed. Their offense isn’t the best but they’ve averaged a respectable 21 points a game through 2008 – not bad considering their defense has allowed less than 14 points per game. As they are such big favourites there isn’t too much value in backing them outright, but backing them on the handicap (-6.5) at 4/5 with totesport is a lot more value for money.

Arizona went into the playoffs after winning a very poor NFC West division with a 9-7 record, only the Chargers & the Eagles went into the play-offs with a worse record. They’ve been underdogs in all of their post season games and the Card’s fans themselves surely couldn’t have thought they’d make it this far. They have one of the best offenses in the league with veteran quarter back Kurt Warner spreading the ball well on his way to a 4,500 yard season. But that doesn’t come as a surprise when you see who he has to throw to – Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin & Steve Breaston. The former is having the best season of his life, in the play-offs alone he has over 400 yards receiving and has caught 5TD passes, 3 of which came in the previous game against a very tough Philadelphia defense. With Larry Fitzgerald being in such great form it may be worth backing him to score the first touchdown (6/1) or to score the first Arizona touchdown (3/1), something that looks more likely as he’s scored the first touchdown in 2 of the 3 play-off games.

This one could go either way as Arizona’s defense seems to be playing as well as their offense and we think there could be an upset on the cards. Arizona normally get off to a great start and I don’t think Pittsburgh have the offense to keep up with them, one speculative punt that might be worth a couple of quid is on our scorecast market – Larry Fitzgerald to score the first TD and Arizona to win by 7-12 points at a huge 40/1!

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